La Casa de Carlota's team of creatives with intellectual disabilities has earned the Barcelona design studio the World Down Syndrome Awards. The first edition of the award, promoted by Down Syndrome International, has recognized the project in the Inclusive Employment category. The award ceremony will take place on March 21 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where La Casa de Carlota and the other four awarded initiatives will be able to present their projects.
La Casa de Carlota is the design studio of the communication agency Roman, and the first in the world to include creatives with intellectual disabilities in its team, such as people with autism and Down syndrome. It has offices in the Catalan capital and also branches in Seville, Medellín, Lima, and Sao Paulo. The project is "a brilliant example of how inclusive employment can contribute to success and innovation," according to the president of Down Syndrome International, Bridget Snedden.
The awards, promoted by Down Syndrome International, distinguish projects that facilitate and improve the lives of people with Down syndrome. They have done so in five areas: Inclusive Employment, Inclusive Education, Inclusive Health, and Inclusive Organization. In this first edition, in addition to La Casa de Carlota, four other initiatives have been recognized, including another Spanish one.
The studio has multiple recognitions, including the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona for the best project with social impact.Specifically, the award winners have been Estudiantes por la Inclusión, from the University of Malaga; INployable, from the Canadian Down Syndrome Society;Make your voice heard, from Trisomie 21 France, and the Down Syndrome Advisory Network, from Down Syndrome Australia.The five awardees have been chosen from among 200 initiatives,and will be able to present their projects at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
However, this will not be the first time that La Casa de Carlota explains its project at the UN headquarters in the Big Apple. The company was invited in March 2018 to present its business model at the same United Nations headquarters. It was then recognized as a benchmark for innovation and social impact worldwide. And this has not been the only distinction the project has received: it was recognized in the Premis Ciutat de Barcelona in 2016, as the best project with social impact; in the Gràffica Award in 2019, in the Pentawards in 2022, and in the Premis Impacte in the 2022 editions and this year.
The president and CEO of Roman, Silvia Alsina, has defended that leading change from within organizations is the best way to advance in the objective of achieving real labor inclusion: "This recognition encourages us to continue promoting the transformative challenges that society and the world need." The founder of La Casa de Carlota and Chief Creative & Purpose of Roman, José María Batalla, has called this award a "boost" to the company's business ethics positioning, in the face of what he sees as a new social paradigm: "Today it is no longer enough to say that we are responsible, we must show it with facts."